Fable For the End of The World
All Ava Reid does is make me cry. Every book they turn out is poetry and I am obsessed—I finished this one in an evening and sat in my feelings until early morning. Have you ever been concerned about what might happen if Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos controlled every aspect of our government? This is the book to read.
Even though YA is not normally my jam, and I have so many thoughts…
Fable for the End of the World is the dystopian YA that you’ve been missing since Hunger Games. Melinoe is a perfectly trained assassin called an “Angel”, meant to hunt and kill indebted people on a livestream to millions of people. Inesa is her next victim in this capitalist totalitarian hellscape, but instead of an easy Gauntlet, they become the U-Haul lesbians of sci-fi survival and Stockholm syndrome. While each character holds their own voice, Reid’s prose is familiar throughout the book and you still get that level of gritty darkness to love from their previous works.
“Looking back, anyone could’ve predicted what happened next. The erosion of lines between corporation and government. People clamoring for Caerus’s CEO to replace the governor. An election with questionable democratic integrity.”
There is a saying in writing that you must learn the rules in order to break them, and Reid does just that by utilizing a dual POV to explore complex emotion while our two FMC’s try to survive together. Melinoe’s character growth is beautiful as her memories unwind (plus there is a bit to unpack there about not feeling at home in your body and transness) and Inesa comes into her own strength and explores her sexual identity. The romance is fast, but they are pushed together by circumstance, and it is very sweet.
“All my other systems have collapsed, except for this one. I’ll always be able to find my way back to her.”
One of the super interesting aspects of this book I found is the intention behind the names. There are three “Angels”, named after three figures in Greek Mythology. Melinoe, a chthonic goddess of nightmares and madness. Keres, the spirits of violent death. Lethe, the goddess of oblivion. Not the mention the name of the government, Caerus, who is the god of opportunity. Following the storyline, the attribution of these names makes a LOT of sense, and just shows how much intention Reid puts into everything they write.
There will be many comparisons of this book to The Hunger Games, which isn’t a bad thing. They are both incredible dystopian stories that hold a mirror to the present state of the US government. But I do not doubt that Fable for the End of the World holds its own. The Gauntlet, the game that is played and livestreamed for society, is not like The Hunger Games, instead victims are nominated by sponsors who have gained 500k in debt to Caerus and can trade a life for that debt. The victim is given 12 hours to prepare, and then hunted by a bio-mech assassin. While both worlds are post-apocalyptic, Fable explores more of the environmental side, with Inesa living in a flooded world with mutated animals in the woods around her. There is a distinct exploration of sexism, with a declaration of men taking what they will and being praised for existing.
There’s something about a man—because Luka looks like a man, even though he’s only sixteen—beating a girl that’s especially exciting to them. Something about watching her degradation.”
Overall, a 5 star read. I can see this being The Hunger Games for the next generation.